GROUSE, PARTRIDGES, QUAILS, ETC. 123 



ers ; tail much less than half as long' as wing, its feathers soft, narrow at 

 tips, and hardly distinguishable from coverts ; wing coverts and inner 

 quills highly developed, folding entirely over the primaries ; tarsus and 

 feet heavy, with long powerful claws ; sexes very different. Adult male : 

 head markings black and white ; tip of crest fawn color ; back pale 

 brown, barred, vermiculated, and streaked with white ; under parts with 

 median line dark brown and sides slaty gray spotted with white. Adult 

 female : head without stripes, prevailing color pale pinkisli cinnamon ; upper 

 parts coarsely mottled and finely barred with black, brown, and lavender, 

 and feathers with coarse white shaft streaks ; chin whitish ; neck with 

 lavender cape specked and bordered with black ; rest of under parts light 

 cinnamon or lavender, breast and sides with black specks and shaft 

 streaks. Young : similar to female, but under parts thickly spotted. 

 iVlng : (J.TO, tail 2.28, bill Sul 



Distribution. — Resident in arid Upper Sonoran and Transition ?ones of 

 western Texas, southern parts of New Mexico, Arizona, and northern 

 Mexico. 



Nest. — On the ground, partly concealed by grass. Eggs : white. 



Food. — Grasshoppers, weevils, caterpillars, larvae, small beans, prickly 

 pear and other seeds, and great numbers of small bulbs. 



In the rugged little ranges rising from the deserts of western 

 Texas, southern New Mexico, and Arizona, you find the Mearns 

 quail, the United States form of the Massena quail, from the zone 

 of junipers, oaks, and nut pines extending up among the big yellow 

 pines, but always where there is plenty of grass or scattered brush 

 for cover. When camping in its country we would often hear a 

 soft chr-r-r-r-r from the grass, and after locating it start for the 

 spot, onh' to hear the quavering notes repeated just as far beyond. 

 After another attempt the voice would be still across the gulch — 

 then back of us — till finally we gave up in despair, for at all times 

 the ventriloquial call deceived us. Fruitless hours may be spent 

 trying to tramp up the birds, and when you do find them you are 

 looking for something else, and they burst from the grass at your feet 

 with a stiff-winged roar and are around the hill out of sight or have 

 dropped into a thicket before you have recovered from your surprise. 



While we were in the Chisos ^Mountains, Texas, 3Ir. Fuertcs made 

 the interesting discovery that the quail under excitement spread 

 their crest laterally, as he has depicted it in the plate. In describ- 

 ing it he says : "Just after sunrise, while I was getting ready for 

 the day's work, a cock Massena quail ran up beside the little knoll 

 where I had placed my bed. He ran by me within fifteen or twenty 

 feet, at first apparently not noticing me. When I turned to watch 

 him he seemed to become more alert, quickened his trot, compressed 

 his plumage, and raised his head to its highest, as a guinea hen will 

 do when slightly alarmed. But accompanying this action he dis- 

 played his curious crest in a peculiar and striking way. Instead of 

 raising it as a bob-whito would have done, he spread it out laterally. 



